Recently, Christine Flowers wrote a column calling U.S. Sen. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., our “least dogmatic politician” (the “our” referring to Pennsylvania, I assume). As the federal government shutdown continues, let’s examine if the facts support Christine’s opinion.

Five Pennsylvanian suburban Republican congressmen have now said they would vote to reopen our government immediately without a change to the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) — but not Sen. Toomey. His vote to close the government with 18 of the most extreme senators was headlined by the Philadelphia Magazine as “Toomey joins wacko bird caucus.”

The next day, Toomey was the only senator to vote “nay” on the request for unanimous consent to send the Senate budget to conference with the House of Representatives’ to end the shutdown. Toomey’s obstructionism was nothing new, as last May the senator was the first to filibuster the Senate’s budget from going to conference with the House Republican budget in an effort to ensure funding to keep the government running past Sept. 30.

Even his former Republican congressional colleague, Joe Scarborough, questioned Sen. Toomey’s extremist tactics on “Morning Joe.” Asked “why” he was obstructing normal budgetary procedures, the senator replied that he didn’t want to take a chance that raising the debt ceiling would become part of the negotiations.

Scarborough expressed amazement: “But has this ever happened before that somebody has held up a budget like this because they’re afraid of something that may come up, that nobody is suggesting will come up.”

Toomey replied that he didn’t trust the House Republicans in conference since the previous year they had “pretend there is no debt ceiling and allow the government to keep on borrowing.”

That’s the danger of Toomey’s dogmatic approach. Successful at blocking a federal budget, Toomey’s real goal is seen in his proposed legislation that forbids the U.S. debt ceiling to be raised – the first default ever by the U.S. government – and directs the U.S. Treasury to first make interest payments to foreign governments before it makes good on domestic obligations, such as seniors’ Medicare subsidies and payments due to our servicemen and women. Having already voted to break the debt ceiling last year, a renowned economist said of Toomey, “This is a guy walking into a crowded room and saying, ‘I have a bomb strapped to my chest, if you don’t give me what I want, I’m going to blow up everybody including myself … there are some pretty crazy people.’”

Dogmatic? Absolutely! Pragmatic? No way! At a tea party-sponsored event after he filibustered the transportation bill, Toomey was caught on an open microphone revealing to a colleague his approach to governing, “We did something constructive today. We denied cloture to the THUD bill. I told you we’d kill it, and we did.” At a time when Pennsylvania has over 60 percent of its bridges structurally deficient, dogmatic is not pragmatic.

Take the Paycheck Fairness Act that would have ensured equal pay for equal work by women. With women earning 77 percent for the same work as men, Sen. Toomey filibustered the bill. In the 60 years prior to his becoming senator, a presidential nominee has required a vote to overcome a filibuster only 20 times — the same number that a vote had to be taken to overcome a filibuster of Toomey’s during the 2 ˝ years he has been a senator.

This rigid ideology is why Toomey voted against the student loan program established by President Eisenhower, calling it a “nationalization” of the student loan industry; why Toomey voted to change Medicare into a voucher system; and why he proposes privatizing social security.

Similarly, Toomey voted to remove government prevention of another Wall Street meltdown by repealing Dodd-Franks — which ensures no financial institution is too big to fail — while he also voted to end the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau which protects the “little guy” from credit card, mortgage broker, auto or other loan abuse.

Pragmatic? Then why did he vote against the bipartisan Veterans Job bill when the Senate budget chair said it was paid for? Even if it wasn’t, how could the senator not provide $1 billion for jobs for returning Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans when he added $2000 billion to our debt by voting to send them to war in the first place? The bipartisan immigration bill?

A “no” vote because Sen. Toomey said it would not stop the next wave of illegal immigration – despite the bill providing a border agent for every 3000 feet of border.

Christine mentions the “bravery” of Sen. Toomey with regard to his vote for the background check amendment. With 86 percent of Pennsylvanians supporting the amendment, Toomey said he voted for it because he “didn’t want legislation to go too far.” When it failed, Toomey said we should move on to “other issues,” although his co-sponsor, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.,continued the fight. As a result, the National Rifle Association spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on negative TV ads against Manchin — but none against Toomey.

And while our senator felt another vote wasn’t called for on gun control, he has voted 14 times to dismantle or defund the Affordable Care Act. This is what we now define as bravery?

There is a reason the American Conservative Union rated Sen. Toomey’s voting record at an extreme 100 percent — tied with U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Wisc. And why, at 92 percent, then-Sen. Rick Santorum said Toomey was too extreme — dogmatic — for Pennsylvania.

May I challenge Ms. Flowers’ assertion that historians now consider that “Profiles in Courage” was actually written by Ted Sorenson. In fact what historians agree on is that Sorenson assisted then-Sen. John F. Kennedy in the finalizing the book.

Not since Woodrow Wilson have we had a president who did his own drafting and composing (and typing in Wilson’s case). When JFK took a strong position advocating the passage of equal rights legislation for African Americans that was a profile in courage.

When Sen. Toomey casts a few votes, he describes as moderate, and then backs away, that is a profile in opportunism. Toomey’s attempt to rebrand himself as a Specter-Scott Republican isn’t going to work. He will remain what he is — a Yankee Ted Cruz.

CLIFFORD WILSON

Glenolden

Mr. Wilson was chairman of the Democratic Party of Delaware County from 1994-2010 — Ed.